Friday, 22 January 2016

As Mrs. McLaughlin and 26-year-old Mary Beirne hurried along in the rain on the night of 21st August, 1879, in the village of Knock, Ireland, they were astonished to see a silvery light and three beautiful figures outside the south gable of the parish church; next to the figures was an altar with a lamb on it. Mary Beirne recognised the three as St. Joseph, Our Lady and St. John the Evangelist; she ran home to tell her mother and family. Word spread, and soon there were fourteen adults and children gazing at the marvel. After more than an hour, the vision faded away.

When the witnesses told their story, there were many scoffers. But soon there was a remarkable cure of a twelve-year-old girl who had been stone deaf for four years, and before long there were more cures - most of them after prayers to the Blessed Virgin Mary and after touching a piece of cement from the south gable of the church.

Some people were puzzled because Our Lady had not requested prayer and penance at Knock, as she had done at other apparitions. But the parish priest suggested that this may have been because the Irish had never lost the spirit of prayer and penance, having suffered so much from poverty, famine and terrible persecution for the Faith - often because they would not deny the Mass, the Sacraments, Our Lady and the Saints. Perhaps, he suggested, the remarkable apparition at Knock was a silent blessing and a reward for the centuries-long faithfulness of Catholic Ireland.

With hindsight, we can now easily understand that the apparition at Knock was a warning of things to come, with the parish church serving as a symbol of the 'official' structures of the Church - the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass would no longer (with relatively rare exceptions) be found inside the official structures but forced outside to the periphery.

One day back in the year 1846, fourteen-year-old Melanie and eleven-year-old Maximin were pasturing their flocks on a mountainside in La Salette, France, when suddenly they saw a bright light, in the midst of which was a beautiful lady - the Blessed Virgin Mary. She was seated on a rock, weeping bitterly. She told the children that people should not work on Sundays or blaspheme, and that because they did these things her Son would have to punish them with famine and disease. She then gave each of the children a secret message.

After a time, both the children wrote down their secrets to be sent to the Holy Father. The Pontiff remarked that Maximin's secret had the simplicity of a child. But after he had read Melanie's, he became grave and spoke of calamities to fall upon the Church Militant. The Pope was much impressed with the secrets; he sent word that a new church should be built at La Salette. Soon La Salette became a place of pilgrimage.

Both Maximin and Melanie were to have a difficult time for the rest of their lives, the message from Heaven was too disturbing for many men of the Church to contemplate and the messengers were greatly scorned. After some years God called home these two messengers of Our Lady - first Maximin, then later Melanie. Today there is a big church in La Salette, and a shrine in honour of Our Lady which recalls the warnings she gave to us with such sorrow and love through two shepherd children in 1846, but still the warning from Heaven goes unheeded.

Tuesday, 19 January 2016

An investigation into the private campaign of the Vatican Secretariat of State to conceal the words of the Virgin Mary in the Third Secret of Fatima.This book, written by Catholic lawyer Christopher Ferrara, is the first full-length examination of the grounds for rejecting Cardinal Bertone's version of the facts in the Third Secret controversy. The Cardinal's own statements, including his book and radio and television broadcasts in 2007, are shown to demonstrate beyond any doubt that a text of the Secret has been suppressed, evidently under an unjustifiable mental reservation that the text is not "authentic".

Amongst other things, the evidence presented here demonstrates that:

The Secret has two parts, as Pope Pius XII's own investigator revealed, one which contains the words of the Virgin that are not found in the published vision.

There are two different Third Secret envelopes, each bearing its own warning, in Sister Lucia's handwriting, that by "express order of Our Lady" the envelope is not to be opened before 1960.

There are two different locations for these envelopes: the Holy Office archives for one, the papal apartment for the other.

The text of the Secret was inside an outer envelope bearing dictation by Pope John XXIII and kept in the papal apartment — an envelope the Secretary of State has never produced even though he now concedes that the envelope exists.

There are two different Third Secret translations in Italian, neither of which has been made public by the Vatican.

Three different Popes since 1959 read texts of the Secret on two different dates - years apart - even though the Vatican's official explanation claims there was only a single reading by each Pope.

And yet the Catholic faithful are still being asked to believe that there is only one text of the Third Secret, and that the Virgin had nothing to say about the meaning of the ominous vision she herself confided to the Fatima seers. Whoever still believes this will have no good reason to continue believing after reading this book. And, given the absolute urgency of the Secret for every inhabitant of the planet, the case presented here should motivate Catholics and non-Catholics alike to demand that the Vatican reveal the hidden words of the Virgin to the whole world - before it is too late.

Monday, 18 January 2016

Each copy of the CD sold by Carmel Books is autographed by the acclaimed composer.

"A young composer based in England, Nicholas Wilton has previously achieved success with his disc of sacred choral music.

His music is deceptively simple. Here, in a disc dedicated to his mother and father, are eight short pieces. The accompanying commentary to the disc states modestly that this is a “short recording of a few miniatures for piano for those who might like them”. The miniatures are impeccably championed by the evidently highly musical pianist, Alexei Knupffer. The program note also openly acknowledges that Wilton wears his major influences on his sleeve, and such is the case. Chopin and Scarlatti cast the longest shadows, while Shostakovich, Beethoven and Liszt lurk in the background (sometimes in the far background).

The short recital begins with the D-Minor Toccata, where it is surely Scarlatti that feeds the compositional hand (both texture and gesture point to this). The melancholy Spanish Dance in A (perhaps pointing towards Albéniz) is geographically specific in demeanour but more, it holds a key to Wilton’s methodology: that of a Satie-esque way of making the most of ostensibly simple gestures.

The Waltzes speak most strongly of the influence of Chopin (the second, the F-Minor, in particular, to my ears, and the Fourth, in a hyper-melancholy C-Minor: though the ending of the latter piece, a question mark in music, points more towards the enigmantic Satie again). The Waltzes speak, also, of a gentle soul at work here, but a soul that is entirely unafraid to speak its own truth. Accusations of being derivative are inevitable, perhaps, but careful listening reveals deeper truths. The charming innocence of the opening of the third Waltz (G-Minor) is perhaps allied to the technique of emotional Rückblick that one encounters in Schumann’s Kinderszenen, and even as Wilton’s Waltz opens out emotionally, it remains overshadowed by its opening.

The only Waltz to demonstrate any real sort of assertiveness, and then briefly, is the Fifth (A flat-Minor). The final B-Minor rides the tightrope of playful and melancholy with consummate expertise, ending with a firm gesture; yet, nevertheless, we are left wanting more.

The recording is quite close, but that is not inappropriate for music of this ilk. Fascinating".

Friday, 15 January 2016

Elena Maria Thierry was born in Mexico in 1879 and died in 1943. She came from a noble lineage and of French descent. Elena was blessed with many gifts on the natural level, and her faith was firm and strong. Yet, as a young woman, she had no attraction for the religious life. However, she was advised by a holy priest, Padre Rosas, that God wanted her to become a Carmelite.

Initially she felt "repugnance for all she knew about Carmel, but she feared disobeying Padre Rosas", and so she persevered and soon received the Habit of Carmel and was given the religious name of Sister Mary Elias of the Blessed Sacrament.

The revolution in Mexico which erupted in 1910 lead to a terrible persecution of the Catholic Church. It was necessary for Mother Mary Elias to rescue all the religious of her convent in Aquascalientes and take them to safety in Cuba. From there to the United States, where she founded four Carmelite monasteries.

Mother Mary Elias of the Blessed Sacrament was a great soul with a great love for God. His Divine Will, was her will.... His suffering, her suffering. As she lay dying she murmured:"Poor Jesus, poor Jesus"!

Thursday, 14 January 2016

Elena Maria Thierry was born in Mexico in 1879 and died in 1943. She came from a noble lineage and of French descent. Elena was blessed with many gifts on the natural level, and her faith was firm and strong. Yet, as a young woman, she had no attraction for the religious life. However, she was advised by a holy priest, Padre Rosas, that God wanted her to become a Carmelite.

Initially she felt "repugnance for all she knew about Carmel, but she feared disobeying Padre Rosas", and so she persevered and soon received the Habit of Carmel and was given the religious name of Sister Mary Elias of the Blessed Sacrament.

The revolution in Mexico which erupted in 1910 lead to a terrible persecution of the Catholic Church. It was necessary for Mother Mary Elias to rescue all the religious of her convent in Aquascalientes and take them to safety in Cuba. From there to the United States, where she founded four Carmelite monasteries.

Mother Mary Elias of the Blessed Sacrament was a great soul with a great love for God. His Divine Will, was her will.... His suffering, her suffering. As she lay dying she murmured: "Poor Jesus, poor Jesus"!

To which is added a Supplement comprising an Explanation of 'The Ecclesiastical Year and the Sacred Liturgy"; Short Accounts of Certain Feasts and Brief "Lives of the Saints" contained in this Missal; a "Glossary of Liturgical Terms", with a "Description of the Symbolic Representations" and a Collection of "Communion and Other Prayers", those indulgenced in accordance with the new Raccolta.

A fine reproduction of the original 1945 text of the immortal Mass, according to the Council of Trent, with complete Latin and English text for the Ordinary and Propers of the Mass. There are no revisions, but additions made according to the Papal Decrees dating from 1945 to the end of Pope Pius XII's reign include the Mass Propers and the Divine Praise of the Assumption.

The binding is sewn with black leatherette cover and gold lettering. The pages have rounded corners and gilt edges. Complete with six coloured ribbon page markers.

These devotions and prayers include the Brown Scapular, devotion to the Infant Jesus, the Gospel of the Holy Name, the Holy Face devotion, the Brigittine rosary and prayers to St. Joseph, St. Elias and St. Albert, as well as prayers composed by St. Teresa of Avila, St. Therese of Liseaux and Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity, to name just a few.

There are novenas for the principal feasts of Carmel and the Liturgical Year, including those of the Immaculate Conception, the Christmas novena to the Infant Jesus, a novena in honour of the Holy Name and many others. Plus the history of the veneration of Maria Gratiae or Our Lady of Grace or the Bowed Head, and Maria S.S. Del Carmine Detta Della Bruna, which is believed to be the first painting of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, are included.

It is therefore hoped that these precious prayers and devotions will serve as a comfort and consolation to the reader, and lead to a greater appreciation of the blessings and graces that have bestowed on the Carmelite Order through the loving intercession of our Patroness, the Blessed Virgin Mary who is Queen and Beauty of Carmel.